Technology Matters Response Paper Assignment

Response Paper to Technology Matters

Tech Matters Essay Rubric

Discussion Prep

On Monday (2/28), we will have our first discussion on Technology Matters. In order to prepare for meaningful discussions, it is important not only to READ the book, but to CONSIDER and CRITIQUE the ideas it presents, to REFLECT on your own opinions, knowledge, experiences, and beliefs, and to raise your own QUESTIONS and COUNTER-ARGUMENTS. Wheew!! that’s a tall order! But getting started now will make writing your response paper easier! Here are some discussion points that came to my mind to get your thought process started.

I encourage you to post your own!

• technological determinism (TD) — the conceptualization of technology as a natural force that acts upon society in inevitable ways — is pervasive in the mass media and the citizenry as a whole, but finds little support in scholarly circles.

• How well did Nye support his case against TD?
• Can you find examples in the mass media of TD? Are the TD examples you can think of “pro-technology” or “anti-technology” or neutral?
• Can you think of specific technologies or specific instances where you personally have advanced the notion of TD?

• technological momentum (TM) — the conceptualization that past technology choices get built into infrastructures and larger “sociotechnical complexes”, such that present people feel locked in to a technological inevitability — finds support in the scholarly literature, but, in lay circles, is often falsely taken as being equivalent to TD.
  • How do you understand the difference between TD and TM?
  • Is it appropriate to call TM a “soft determinism”?
  • What modern technologies, aside from those mentioned by Nye, do you think have achieved TM?

• Do your interests and perspectives on technology incline you toward externalist, internalist, or contextualist views/arguments?

• Chapters 5 and onward put forward the idea that “technologies are neither deterministic nor predictable …suggest[ing] that machines might be used to create choices and possibilities” (p. 67).
  • Are choices available? If so, are available choices “real” or are they constrained by technological momentum? Do you have diverse choices or simply many similar-seeming options?
  • How do you make personal choices about technology? Do you evaluate alternative technological possibilities, motivations behind specific choices, potential outcomes?
  • How does society make choices about technology?
  • Do you, as an individual feel able to make personal decisions that are at odds with larger societal trends or do you feel trapped by momentum?

• Cultural Uniformity, or Diversity? Arguments were made on both sides.
  • Can you provide evidence that supports an argument that one side seems to dominate in current society? Is the diversity only skin-deep (i.e., superficial)? Is the uniformity only skin-deep?
  • How does the debate over uniformity/standardization vs. diversity relate to our dabbling in primitive technologies? to our perspectives on handmade vs. factory made? to our course goal of examining various motivations for maintaining/practicing/learning low-tech processes/techniques/products